There have been known various kinds of apparatus provided in a vending machine for accepting and conveying a paper money and a magnetic card into the machine through a common inlet. The typical one of such apparatus has been disclosed in the Japanese laid-open utility model application No. 63-114370/1988. This prior apparatus includes a common inlet (1) for introducing a paper money and a magnetic card into a vending machine; a horizontal passage (2) connected to the common inlet (1) for guiding the paper money and the card toward the interior of the vending machine; a pair of regulating plates (3A, 3B) extending parallel to each other and removably mounted on and along the horizontal passage (2) for guiding the card therebetween; a plurality of sets of upper and lower belts (4A, 4B; 5A, 5B; 6A, 6B; 7A, 7B) partially overlapped with each other for inserting therebetween the paper money or the card and conveying the paper money or the card in and along the horizontal passage (2); a pair of optical sensors (8, 9) arranged near the common inlet for sensing each width of the paper money and the card to thereby discriminate the paper money from the card; a set of magnetic heads (10, 11, 12) for detecting the respective magnetic characteristics of the paper money and the card and magnetically writing a purchasing information in the card; and driving means (10A, 10B) for driving the pair of regulating plates (3A, 3B) to fall onto the horizontal passage (2) to thereby form a provisional passage for the card when the optical sensors (8, 9) have sensed the insertion of the card into the the common inlet (1).
However, such prior apparatus has been found to have the following drawbacks. That is, when the card has been concave or convex, it tends to be spaced from the magnetic heads and thereby fails to magnetically sufficiently interact with the magnetic heads, because it is moved in the horizontal passage without pressure vertically applied thereto. In addition, the regulating plates are operative to form the provisional passage for the card in the horizontal passage only when the optical sensors have properly sensed the opposite corners of the card. Consequently, if the card is unsuitably inserted into the common inlet so that the card does not cross one of the two optical sensors, no signal corresponding to the entrance of the card is outputted and accordingly the regulating plates is not operated to form the provisional passage for the card. As the result, the apparatus fails to discriminate the card from the paper money and conveys the card, by mistake, into a chamber for reserving paper moneys.